To turn the financial corner, the Times has been off-loading struggling properties from its portfolio to raise cash, bailing on its investment in the Boston Red Sox and selling its group of regional newspapers, which the Times wrote down as a $161 million loss in 2011. Three years ago, the Times tried selling Boston Globe, its sister paper, but was unable to find a deal. Last year, the company began debating whether to try again.

[...] In the past, [then CEO Janet] Robinson had resisted selling the Globe. She wanted to wait until the Globe’s new pay wall, which launched last fall, took effect and possibly improved the ­paper’s sale value. “Janet was the leader of the group that didn’t want to sell it, and because she was boss, her voice carried,” says a person familiar with the situation.

But there was another significant voice rising in the debate—that of Michael Golden, Arthur Sulzberger’s first cousin. As the second-most-powerful family member at the Times Company, Golden had run just about every division except for the Times itself, from the women’s magazines it used to own to the Paris-based International Herald Tribune—and, most recently, its regional media group. [...]

In Golden’s estimation, Robinson had not pushed hard enough to sell the paper, and he wanted to see it sold sooner rather than later. Since the economy had collapsed in 2008, Golden and others had begun to wonder if Robinson had missed a window to sell when the Globe and About.com were worth a combined estimated $1 billion. And there was another possibility: Once those properties were finally gone, Golden could make a play for CEO himself, pushing Robinson aside. In addition to giving Golden the power he felt was his due, eliminating Robinson would also cut $6.8 million in salary from the company’s balance sheet. And if the Globe was sold, perhaps the Times could raise enough cash to pay down its debts and afford a $25 million annual dividend again, assuaging the family’s financial anxieties.

Last fall, Golden wanted to take a closer look at the incoming numbers on the Globe’s pay wall, which launched on ­September 12, 2011, to see what progress it was making....

With Robinson out, the Globe now reports to Golden. "There are already rumblings that potential buyers are being sounded out," Hagan writes.